Charles C. Stevenson Jr., the actor known for playing bartender Smitty on Will & Grace, has died. He was 95.
The actor, who also appeared on The Office, Shameless and Glee, among many other credits, died on Jan. 19 of natural causes in Camarillo, California, his son Scott confirmed to Variety.
“In his own words, his job was ‘marrying or burying people,’” Scott told the outlet in a statement. “As he told it, the panic-stricken director would invariably come to him to beg him to find a way to fill in unscripted space between ‘We are gathered here together’ (where he’d probably get his close-up) and the ‘amen’ at the end of the scene (where he usually wouldn’t). Stevenson admitted that he got pretty good at that.”
Raised in Piedmont, California, Stevenson served in the Navy during the Korean War before studying English at UC Berkley. Stevenson began acting at age 50 after moving to Los Angeles to work in public service.
Making his onscreen debut in a 1982 episode of NBC’s Voyagers!, Stevenson went on to appear on shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Dynasty, LA Law, Cheers, Knots Landing, Designing Women, Matlock, Murder She Wrote, Sister Sister, Family Matters, Melrose Place, Boy Meets World, ER, Charmed, Scrubs, Gilmore Girls, House, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm and more.
Charles C. Stevenson Jr. as Smitty and Megan Mullally as Karen Walker in ‘Will & Grace’ (Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank)
Stevenson also had roles in such movies as The Naked Gun (1988), Ed Wood (1994), Men in Black (1997), Pleasantville (1998), Ghost World (2001) and more.
